This invention relates generally to packet information transmission and more particularly to early determination of a transmission block count which allows subsequent quick release of the transmission resources.
Cellular radio telephone systems typically include subscriber units (such as mobile portable units) which communicate with network communications units (such as a fixed ground base station or an orbiting satellite base station) via radio frequency (RF) transmission. A typical communication network includes at least a base station and a switching center. In a packet radio system, information is transmitted in packets comprised of data blocks. Within the Global System for Mobile communications specification (GSM) 03.64 version 1.1.0, a countdown variable is used by a Mobile Station (MS) to identify the final data blocks in a packet of a mobile-originated transmission.
Ideally, the countdown procedure should commence with enough time to allow the network sufficient advance warning of the impending completion of the packet transmission. The earlier the network has this knowledge, the more intelligently it can allocate transmit resources for other MSs. When several time slots are being utilized during the mobile-originated transfer, the block countdown allows the MS to complete transmission several block frames before the network has knowledge of the impending completion. This is due to the channel and processing delays, the combination of which is several block frames in duration. As a result of this phenomenon, the network has not been able to reassign bandwidth to other MSs. Thus, the network continues to allocate blocks to a MS which has already completed its transmission and in the process wastes valuable transmission resources.